I played Carson City and really liked the combination of worker placement and area control mixes with optional fighting. I thought I would not like the limits that 4 rounds impose, but after playing it again, I think that the pressure it creates works.

Are there any similar games I should look at, which have a similar gameplay?

Not sure which aspects you enjoyed, but 2 I can think of that may meet the bill are1) The Manhattan Project - This is a worker placement game that allows players to perform espionage or bomb other players buildings. It's very much a game of timing as you leave your workers in buildings till you pull them back.2) City of Iron: Second Edition - This has an area control aspect mixed with deckbuilding and tableau building (there are a lot of mechanics in this game). Players can either build up military to compete for control of neighboring towns or avoid that competition and focus on the purely economic aspects.

The Manhattan Project doesn't have an area-control component, but it does have espionage and bombing, making it peculiarly interactive.

Perhaps check out Dominare - it's not a worker-placement game in the strict sense, but it checks some of your other boxes. There's a blend of solo engine-building with competition for area control, not to mention being nasty to each other with assassinations.

Thanks for all of the great suggestions, I am going to check them all out. I was looking at Belfort, but it seems to be OOP. I did find it on Amazon, but am not sure it is worth the premium being charged.

I looked at all of the suggested games and thought more about what it was that I liked so much about Carson City. I think for me, it came down to having so many choices. You can choose if you want to focus on building for a long game, or just get cheap VP. You can influence the turn order, you can choose to fight or not, choose to use luck (dice), choose to bluff, etc...I did not think that the theming had as much to do with it, but the theming does work well. It works so well in fact, that I can't get past the old west theme when I look for similar games.

I looked at all of the suggested games and thought more about what it was that I liked so much about Carson City. I think for me, it came down to having so many choices. You can choose if you want to focus on building for a long game, or just get cheap VP. You can influence the turn order, you can choose to fight or not, choose to use luck (dice), choose to bluff, etc...I did not think that the theming had as much to do with it, but the theming does work well. It works so well in fact, that I can't get past the old west theme when I look for similar games.

Based on your thoughts, I'd recommend Empires: Age of Discovery. It has a good number of routes to victory. You're jockeying for control of areas with some negotiation. You can also minimize that aspect and push for an economic/discovery route. If you can't tell it's one of my favorite games even after playing it for 8+ years now.

While Great Western Trail is top on my Essen list, I don't think that will offer the experience you are looking for. Should still be a good game though.